Irene Cull was a botanist, but her enthusiasm for all things natural was contagious. It was March, just over 30 years ago, and my wife, Mary, and I were on our way to a prairie conference in Chicago. Irene was scheduled to speak at that conference and had caught a ride with us.
As we travelled up Rt. 26 adjacent to the Illinois River, Irene pointed out which trees were in flower and which were only in bud. This was one of her favorite times of year. The dormancy of winter was pretty much over and life was beginning to reawaken. The ride with her was our most memorable conference highlight, thanks to her stories of prairie flora, and their various uses by Native Americans. She was also a wealth of information on the trials and tribulations of prairie pioneers.
En route, we noticed several large “V’s” of migrating Canada geese. Irene asked that we pull off the highway. There she opened her window to the ‘goose music’ as they passed overhead. I turned off the motor and we sat silently spellbound listening to that ancient symphony of spring which has echoed across this valley of the Illinois River for millennia.
Times have changed. Bucking the trend of species loss, Canada geese can be so numerous they can coat the countryside with vast amounts of… undesirable byproducts of their presence, so to speak. There are so many geese in some locales, that this vibrant vernal voice of March has become characterized by disparaging words such as, “sky carp.”
They consume way too much, deprive other species of food, and leave a huge mess. They’ve become not unlike a great goose conglomerate… Amalgamated Sky Carp Unlimited. Something has to be done. One effective response has come from border collies, which flush the geese from beaches, city parks, and golf courses. But this only moves the problem geese elsewhere. The solution has to do with reducing numbers.
A few decades ago, it was a rare treat to glimpse a deer along a hiking trail in Central Illinois. Now, like the geese, deer have increased so much that sightings are commonplace, and deer damage to native plants is evident almost everywhere. Frustration with these browsers of bushes, heisters of hostas, and takers of tulips is on the rise. I’ve heard them now referred to as, “rats with antlers.” Plus, each year, just in Illinois, there are about 25,000 car/ deer collisions. A long term solution could be to reduce the population. To protect and restore a wide diversity of native flora, it will be necessary to establish reasonable management goals for the deer herd. For example, a goal of a dozen deer per square mile may be sustainable and less damaging to the landscape, rather then something north of 20 per square mile.
Large groups of any critters can become a menace. Even grasshoppers, when they coalesce into swarms become known as locusts. So huge are their numbers that they can block out the sun and leave destruction in their wake. Such are the hazards of becoming too prevalent, too influential, too demanding. Too Many!
But lest we forget, a glance in the mirror is called for. The 20th Century started with our population at 1.6 billion. It ended in 2000 with these numbers reversed to 6.1 billion. This is nearly a 4-fold increase within a single century (in geologic time a mere trifle). The result is ever growing demands on limited space for more food, more water, more fuel, more housing, etc. Today we have far surpassed 7 billion, and the growth curve continues on a steep upward climb. It will take less than a dozen years to add yet another billion. Meanwhile the Earth isn’t getting any larger. It’s been said that to sustain our CURRENT needs would require three more planet Earths.
Like the geese, we consume vast quantities of resources, deprive other species of food, and leave an ever growing mess. Some of us gather into large flocks called corporations. These too often work to weaken regulations meant to protect our environment. The current contenders for the Republican presidential nomination have even called for elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency. Under Reagan, funding for alternative energy research was eliminated. This would have helped wean us off of oil dependency. The cry to “drill baby drill,” has been a plea to disregard the “smoke detector” of science and to ignore a spate of scientific research clearly warning that human activities are dangerously warming the planet due to buildup of atmospheric carbon.
Aside from the conundrum of getting our numbers to be sustainable, there are several valuable life lessons we learned in Kindergarten that are appropriate here. For example: it’s important to share with one another; we must all make an effort to get along (don’t bicker); help one another; and clean up after yourself.
Perhaps we should send our Wall Street bankers, corporate big wigs, and politicians back to remedial kindergarten. Sharing needs to be relearned by those CEO’s who think it’s ok that they “earn” a thousand times more per hour than their employees do. Helping one another is what universal health care and social security are all about. Cleaning up after ourselves is common sense. If this were done as part of normal business, there’d be no need for an Environmental Protection Agency. Just do what you already know is right… and seek help from experts.
Irene Cull could have taught at this “kindergarten.” A student of Aldo Leopold, she knew the native flora and was always willing to share her knowledge. When I had questions about mysterious plants, she would usually solve the mystery. She had propagated countless prairie plants along Central Illinois’ highways, at a time when few cared about native prairie. Many decades ago she was researching plants that could replace oil as a sustainable energy source. Central Illinois is better for Irene having been here.